Pakistan: Worsening Conflict in Balochistan
President Pervez Musharraf and the military are responsible for the worsening of the conflict in Balochistan. Tensions between the government and its Baloch opposition have grown because of Islamabad’s heavy-handed armed response to Baloch militancy and its refusal to negotiate demands for political and economic autonomy. The killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in August 2006 sparked riots and will likely lead to more confrontation. The conflict could escalate if the government insists on seeking a military solution to what is a political problem and the international community, especially the U.S., fails to recognise the price that is involved for security in neighbouring Afghanistan. Full ICG report in PDF and Word

A new conflict is emerging in Baluchistan, a vast yet sparsely populated Pakistani province, straddling three countries: Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. This instability has potential implications for the United States, as it is a launching pad for U.S. military operations against Islamic terrorism.

In a new Carnegie Paper, Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism, Visiting Scholar Frédéric Grare provides insight to the numerous factors that have led to the complex struggle between the Pakistani government and the Baluch population’s fight for independence. Were Baluchistan to become independent, Pakistan would lose a major part of its natural resources and Baluchistan would become a new zone of instability in the region. Download Paper in PDF

Conflict in Balochistan

Disturbed by reports of renewed armed conflict in parts of Balochistan that began to pour in during December 2005, an HRCP fact-finding team visited the troubled areas nearKohlu and in January, as fighting expanded, another mission visited Dera Bugti and Sui. The fact-finding mission to Balochistan was led by HRCP chairperson Asma Jahangir. Formerchairperson Afrasiab Khattak and Dr Mubashir Hasan formed a part of the team which visited Quetta and Sibi from 26thto 28th December….. ..download HRCP full report

Tens of thousands displaced by army operation in Balochistan

In Balochistan, the fighting has been between tribal rebels and the army. Apart from longstanding demands for increased political autonomy, development projects are fuelling the current conflict in Balochistan as the local population demands increased control over and more benefits from the exploitation of natural resources. The current unrest started in 2003 and has intensified during 2005 and 2006, bringing 40,000 army troops to the region to fight local militant groups. Estimates of the number displaced at its peak are as high as 200,000…….Read IDMC full report or PDF

The Crisis in BalochistanPublic Event

Balochistan, a vast yet sparsely populated province in southwestern Pakistan, has been a source of conflict and instability for decades. The Baloch people inhabit a poverty-stricken area rich in natural resources straddling Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Clashes between the government of Pakistan and local leaders over autonomy, wealth distribution, and the sheltering of insurgents have risen dramatically in intensity in the last year, with implications for regional stability and the war against Islamic militancy. READ ABOUT EVENTListen to the audio from this event.

Balochistan’s History of Insurgency

Pakistan’s south-western province of Balochistan has been the site of an intense struggle for self-determination against the federal government. Despite the province being rich in natural resources, the Baloch remain economically marginalised and receive little benefit from development in Balochistan. In its efforts to counter the Baloch struggle, Pakistan’s government has employed summary executions, disappearances, torture and indiscriminate bombing and artillery attack…….. MORE

The Baloch Insurgency and its threat to Pakistan Energy Sector

While most of the world’s media remains focused on insurgent attacks on oil facilities in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan is experiencing a rising tide of violence against its Sui natural gas installations located in the country’s volatile Balochistan province, where the majority of the energy-starved country’s natural gas facilities are located. Pakistan, currently engaged in a drawn-out conflict against al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants in its North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), is slowly descending into conflict with anti-government forces in Balochistan province, raising the unsettling prospect of a rising second internal front against militants……Report By John C.K. Daly..

Turning a fight into a war

Pakistan‘s aggressive policy towards its aggrieved west is causing chaos

THE castle belonging to Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in Dera Bugti, a small town in Pakistan’s western province of Baluchistan, stands like an epitaph to a lost battle. The walls have been ruined by cannon fire. Most of the local residents have fled. Those who remain in the town are mostly renegade Bugtis, of a clan opposed to Mr Bugti’s God-like rule over the tribe. A few years ago, Mr Bugti drove them from Dera Bugti. But, since he began squabbling with the government, which set its troops on him last year, it has carted them back. “He’s finished,” says one of their protectors, a colonel in Pakistan’s frontier corps. READ MOREPAKISTAN: Roots of the Balochistan conflict run deep

The Baloch animosity towards the central government of Pakistan and the country’s most populous province, Punjab, which is seen as controlling the military and the administration, has a long history. Divided in the nineteenth century among Iran, Afghanistan, and British India, the Baloch found their

aspirations and traditional nomadic life frustrated by the presence of national boundaries and the extension of central administration over their lands……….Read full text

Higher poverty in Balochistan
Conflict in Balochistan among other reasons also highlights its ‘poverty’. The ongoing military operation is pushing more and more people towards below-poverty line, says a report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)…..….Read more

Baluch ethnicity and nationalism (1971-81): an assessment

Rajshree Jetly (National University of Singapore)

The paper examines the socio-economic basis for the growth of separatist sentiments among the Baluch and argues that it was the weak nature and essentially fragmented strategies of the movement, the response and policies pursued by the central leadership and the failure of the Baluch to elicit any meaningful external support that contributed to the gradual decline of the movement. The time frame under consideration here is from 1971, when the movement was on its rise, until 1981, when the movement ceased to be an issue in the Pakistani polity. DOWNLOAD in PDF

Balochistan Insurgency 1973-77

A long-dormant crisis erupted in Balochistan in 1973 into an insurgency that lasted four years and became increasingly bitter. The insurgency was put down by the Pakistan Army, which employed brutal methods and equipment, including Huey-Cobra helicopter gunships, provided by Iran and flown by Iranian pilots….Read moreWhy Balochistan is burning

Baloch history has been an unending saga of treachery by the ruling elite in Islamabad. Though the insurgencies in the past have been crushed with a heavy hand, they have left scars which are yet to heal. Each insurgency has been more intense than the previous one and the organisational capabilities and the popular support for the insurgents continue to grow.…..More

The Baloch of Balochistan

Of late, the Balochi tribesmen of Makkaran have been in the news because of their resentment and armed conflict against the Pakistani government. In India, not much is remembered about these people any more, particularly by the post-partition generation. In view of the security implications in our neighbourhood, it might be of interest to many to learn a little about the Balochis. READ MORE

Read Excellent reports and updates on Balochistan Conflict on .…..Click on pic

PAKISTAN: UN Human Rights Council must respond to bombing of Balochistan

On 27 August 2006 it was reported that fighter jets and helicopters attacked the south western province of Balochistan, killing some 37 government opponents, including a former governor and chief minister of the province, Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti. The military action is also reported to have claimed the lives of two members of the provincial assembly and two of Bugti’s grandsons. Afterwards, the president-cum-army commander congratulated the troops for their overwhelming use of force in killing the 79-year-old invalid and his handful of supporters.

Analysts stress the need for more self-determination for the region. “As far as possible resolutions [to the current conflict] go, in the first place the 1973 constitution of Pakistan should be implemented, especially in regard to provincial autonomy,” leading regional observer Ahmed Rashid…….Read more

Tribal Rebellion in Balochistan

The tribal chief sits next to a campfire in his mountain hideout discussing his chances against the Pakistan government that his tribe, the Bugtis, are fighting for autonomy in Balochistan, the country’s poorest province. “We have three things on our side — time, space and will,” says Nawab Bugti, age 79, gazing into the flames. READ FULL STORY

War of discontent

IN January 2005, Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Ataullah delivered a bleak warning to Pakistan’s military at the Press Club in Karachi. If it launched an operation in the gas-rich western province, he said, the province’s “people will fight a decisive battle this time as they are committed to safeguarding the integrity of their land until the last drop of their blood is spilt”. N January 2005, Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Ataullah delivered a bleak warning to Pakistan’s military at the Press Club in Karachi. If it launched an operation in the gas-rich western province, he said, the province’s “people will fight a decisive battle this time as they are committed to safeguarding the integrity of their land until the last drop of their blood is spilt”. READ FULL STORY…..

Gathering StormThe rape of a hapless woman doctor in the high security PPL residential compound in Sui, guarded by the army’s elite Defence Security Group, has triggered an explosion in the volatile province of Balochistan. The region, which has witnessed three armed rebellions against the federal administration in the last 57 years, is on the verge of yet another civil war between the Baloch nationalists and the military......Read more

BALOCH CONFLICT : RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

“The conflict in Balochistan today is about our national resources, land, recognition of our right to self-determination and our freedom which the military rulers in Islamabad tends to colour differently to stigmatise the Balochi people,” says Haleem Baloch, a member of the Baloch Students Federation..….Read more

bInstrument of Accession of Kalat StateCopy of the original document Nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future constitution of Pakistan or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of Pakistan under any such future constitution.